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What means are available for them to test the code? If they have inadequate means of testing it, there will surely be mistakes made. The best way to test it is to have a mirror site, either on the working site in a folder, or on another computer. And the code base is always changing, so what worked yesterday may not work today, or there may be a better way of doing something now.

If they have inadequate means of testing it, there will surely be mistakes made.

I don't think the op means code bugs I think the op means feature bugs and it's easy to have bugs despite your best efforts for testing. They can often be silly trivial things to you but big things to the project owner.

-Criticize them
-Remind them of the previous bugs found in their code in the past and they should stop repeating the same mistake.
-List out the bugs, and allow them to fix it.

All of the above. If they are repeating the same mistake over and over there is a failing of their process that needs to be addressed. Criticize might be the wrong word, but you do need to point out there is an issue so it can be addressed.

Originally Posted by MikeGore

Is it reasonable to ask employees to always deliver bug free code?

It's reasonable to expect basic things should be done right, but there will always be bugs in a sufficiently large project(in my experience).

Originally Posted by MikeGore

Does demanding bug free code make the employee less likely or more likely to repeat the mistake?

That's not really relevant. You can demand all you want, but there will always be things that need to be fixed or changed later.

Originally Posted by MikeGore

What are your thoughts on refining the code and getting rid of bugs at a later stage?

In general you shouldn't encourage sloppy code, but as I said you will need to address things later. You should always aim to get it done without issues the first time, but that's rarely how it works. Just make sure your people test their work before saying it's completed, and address any issues quickly.